Order 796689: Built Environment between public health and other healthcare professional

BOOK

REVIEW

A5 Am J Prev Med 2017;53(3):A5–A6 & 2017

American Journal of

The Practical Playbook: Public Health and Primary Care Together Edited by J. Lloyd Michener, Denise Koo, Brian C. Castrucci, and James B. Sprague Oxford University Press, 2015. 400 pages. $27.95, ISBN-13: 978-0190222147

I n 1997, an important monograph was published by the New York Academy of Medicine entitled Medi- cine & Public Health—the Power of Collaboration.1 In

this report, a national committee of experts reviewed and commented on collaboration between health care and population health in terms of history, effective models, and the compelling need to advance such collaboration. Fifteen years later, a National Academy of Medicine report called for enhanced partnerships between primary care and public health.2 In addition, a number of provisions within the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (2010)3 were designed to foster linkages between clinical care and public health. It is in this context that a new book, The Practical

Playbook: Public Health and Primary Care Together (Playbook), was written. The aim of the Playbook, according to the authors, is to “support public health and clinical practice in working together…to improve the health and well-being of our communities.” The Playbook complements a website (www.practicalplaybook.org) that has similar content. However, the book covers topics in more depth and provides a user-friendly overview of the conceptual models that are easier to visualize in book form than through the website. The three partners responsible for creating and sup-

porting the Playbook in book and website form are the deBeaumont Foundation; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and the Department of Community & Family Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine. There is an editor for the Playbook from each of these institutions. Fifty-three contributors are listed. Based on graduate degrees and affiliations, the great majority of the authors are from public health or population health backgrounds as opposed to clinical positions. The Playbook’s 28 chapters are divided among five

sections: Fundamentals of Partnerships Between Public

Health and Primary Care; Working Together; Health and Health Care; Working With Data; and Success Stories. Interestingly, 11 of the chapters are called “essays.” The essays are not really commentaries or editorials. Instead, they seem to be more in-depth explorations of a selected number of topics (e.g., the role of electronic health records in linking primary care with public health [Chapter 23]). Overall, the Playbook is a very practical handbook for

public health and population health specialists to develop a partnership with primary care to address a target of mutual interest. There are many vignettes and case studies that demonstrate that collaboration between the two spheres of activity can achieve substantive improvements in health. In addition, there are figures, models, tips, and sample work- sheets that emphasize putting concepts and theory into practice. Practitioners will appreciate that the Playbook does not understate the potential challenges and difficulties that may arise in trying to develop a collaborative project. In fact, Section II, Working Together, addresses how to anticipate difficulties and use a range of tools to foster success. Perhaps some potential readers may wonder why they

should use the Playbook in book form when there is an existing website with at least some of the core content. The first point is that there is, in fact, more information in the book than the companion website—information that is practical as opposed to theoretic minutiae. The second point is that the Playbook will not be read front to back by most readers. Instead, practitioners will use the Playbook as a handbook and read relevant chapters to conceptua- lize and launch a specific project. There are a few areas that the Playbook could have

addressed in more depth. For example, high-utilizer populations (e.g., the top 5% of higher-risk populations that typically utilize 50% or more of the healthcare budget) are an important group that benefits from a collaborative approach between primary care and public health. Similarly, primary care providers are just one component of the healthcare system. Additional content on the linkages primary care must have with specialists and behavioral health would have been useful. Finally, readers of the Playbook would also have gained if there were greater coverage of the complexities of managed care (e.g., how health plans contract with multiple entities such as medical groups, independent practice associa- tions, community clinics, and often a combination of such entities to construct a provider network). Although

Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Kohatsu / Am J Prev M

there is a chapter on accountable care organizations, the reader from a public health background needs to know how health care is structured. In spite of these relatively minor quibbles, the Playbook

fills an important need by providing practical, real-world methods to create a richer collaboration between public health and primary care. The many examples of successes show that meaningful improvements in health are, in fact, quite possible. The Playbook provides a lighted path for professionals and other stakeholders from both worlds, to work together, to better advance population health.

Reviewed by Neal D. Kohatsu, MD, MPH, Medical Director, California Department of Health Care Services, MS 0000, P.O. Box 997413, Sacramento CA 95899. Email: [email protected].

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2017.03.013

September 2017

REFERENCES 1. Lasker RD and the Committee on Medicine and Public Health. Medicine

& Public Health—The Power of Collaboration. New York, NY: New York Academy of Medicine; 1997.

2. National Academy of Medicine. Primary Care and Public Health: Exploring Integration to Improve Population Health. Washington, DC: National Academies Press; 2012.

3. Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act 42 U.S.C. § 18001 (2010).

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